Man of the Match
by Jemal Smythe
Summary: My first attempt at writing, so useful feedback is definately welcome. This is basically post-match analysis, if you will- my attempt to make the Tournament seems more of an everyday thing-plus i wanted to give my gaming character a bit of background. Hop


He released the trigger sending three rockets spiraling into one of the fuel tanks that exist in the refinery arena. The explosion was huge, the shards of the tank making look like a giant flak shell had just gone off.

"MULTI-KILL!" boomed the announcer's voice in both the arena and the stadium over five hundred miles away, "DARK PHALANX WIN THE MATCH!"

The crowd roared at the sound of the name of the Dark Phalanx -a team comprised of ex-NEG and TCA operatives, Temple Guardians and Necris Phayders- all former guardians of their races' respective empires.

The giant screen showed the explosion and the person responsible turning on the spot, rocket launcher slung over his shoulder, walking towards the camera drone. His body then was engulfed by lightning and within a split second he was on the stadium's podium, surrounded by the remaining four of his team, having lost one of his team this round.

They played to the crowd moving to the barriers to receive pats on their backs and requests for autographs. He remained on the podium, punching the air with his weapon

"Well what do you make of that one, Jim?" the ethnic-American commentator asked his colleague in the commentary booth

"Tony, that was possibly one of the most fast paced and explosive Tee-Dee matches I've seen all season I mean take a look at these sweet moves"

The screens showed the leader of the Dark Phalanx, an older combatant named Blake, sprint from behind some steel drums run up a wall and back flip off it whilst shooting an Assault Rifle in either hand at his two opponents either side of him. The crowd cheered at the replays, even Blake's teammates made comments to him.

"Blake sure hasn't lost it in his eight years here, but you can't knock the decisive blow the Phalanx made to the Death Knights. They won it all thanks to a well placed shot from the fan's favorite, Cyboris"

"Yeah no question about it Tony, his agency training must have come into play-it was such a tactical shot for a relatively new fighter to make. If he'd messed it up, he'd have been smoked for sure!"

"No doubt!" they both chuckled

"Man of the Match?"

"Tough call Jim, but it'll have to be Cyboris for that last second multi-kill. He's still got his launcher too!"

"Yeah, hopefully one of the LMC stage-hands will take it from him, before he starts blowing holes in the stadium roof!"

"Forget the roof, what about Sophie?"

Back on the podium floor, a stage-hand scurried to the platform, ahead of a beautiful young woman, in a dazzling red dress, carrying a microphone and a trophy. Cyboris saw the tech and then looked in his hands

"Sorry kid, here" he threw the weapon sideways at the crew member who staggered backwards, almost falling over, as his caught it like a rugby ball. Cyboris just shrugged "Forgot I had it!"

Sophie quickly got onto the podium to stand next to Cyboris. Wolf whistles where hurled from the crowd

"Well Cyboris, how did you think that went? Another victory puts you above Sunblade" she asked.

Like a good interviewer she moved the microphone to the fighters mouth and tried to keep eye contact, but she always found his right eye-the red cybernetic replacement- a little unnerving, along with his steel battle mask.

He removed his mask to reveal his scarred face and his trademark smirk, which always looked out for place, as if it belongs to a handsome bachelor's face, not one of a badly scarred tournament fighter

"Well Sophie, we needed the points and a win here and fortunately this arena's a favourite of ours, so we managed to achieve it, but at the cost of Osiris, but we'll make sure he gets back to Luxor for a proper service."

Despite being half cybernetic, he spoke with a gentle and friendly English accent, though not a regional, stereotypical or upper class one, and certainly not an accent one would expect a deadly Tournament fighter to possess.

"As for Sunblade" he continued "We meet them in two weeks, it should be an interesting one"

"Well congratulations on the win and on being man of the match!" she handed him the small trophy and gave him a kiss on the cheek "Everyone, give it up for Dark Phalanx!"

The crowd roared once more.

"Back to Tony and Jim in the box" Sophie signed off with a smile before running off once the cameras had gone off her.

"Thanks Sophie and nice dress by the way. Well fans, there's going to be a wait whilst the scrubbers get to work preparing refinery for our next fight"

"Man, I don't envy their job!" Jim commented

"Me neither! So let's take an in depth luck into our Em-Oh-Em's history shall we?"

The victors were slowly moving backstage, probably for a backstage celebratory drink as the two commentators continued the tri-cast to the fans in the stadium as well as those around the galaxy. The Titantron screens showed a charismatic picture of Cyboris along with his name and then as the commentators spoke appropriate pictures and video replays were shown.

"Originally an agent for the Terran Colonial Authority, Cyboris was the best, his supervisors had him in the run to higher positions, but it was not to be..."

"No it wasn't, Jim. During a year long undercover operation to bring down one of the galaxy's cartels, he was acting as a lieutenant shipping narcotics on a cartel cruiser when a pirate fleet launched a boarding action killing most of the crew, taking the product for themselves and leaving those who were injured to the mercy of the cold vacuum of space..."

Back to Tony "A Terran Navy patrol came across the wreck and found Cyboris there, a sole survivor whose shear willpower and survival training had kept him alive, despite his horrendous wounds. Taken back to his agency, they secretly used cybernetic replacements to keep their number one agent alive..."

"But as we all know, since the AI rebellion, where Xan became part of history, cybernetics have been outlawed and an insider took word of this agency's work, leading to a storming of the agency headquarters by the Government and the apprehension of Cyboris..."

"Now, after winning his draft place and being the first round pick for the Dark Phalanx, Cyboris has racked up kill after kill and gained quite a fan base and continues to go strong!"

The screams of the crowd suddenly rose as the pre-match count-down from ten began.

"But now, there's more fight-fans. It's time for the match we've all been waiting for"

"Hell Tony, I've been waiting for this one too!"

The platform rose holding five green armoured figures standing there. Pyrotechnics went off

"It's Malcolm and the Thunder Crash team!"


End file.
